The present invention relates to food preparation or dispensing product component, such as powdered concentrate, with a dilution component, such as water, to form a resultant combination, such as a beverage.
A variety of food preparation or dispensing apparatus are available in which a product such as a food concentrate or food base is combined or otherwise mixed with water or another liquid. In this regard, most beverages as well as other liquid food substances such as soups are not ready to drink and are prepared by mixing water, either hot or cold with such a product. For example, there are numerous devices which combine powdered or liquid concentrate coffee products with water to produce a reconstituted or mixed coffee beverage having a desired flavor. Similarly, some fountain-type beverage devices may be capable of dispensing carbonated beverages as well as juice or other non-carbonated beverages by mixing a syrup or powdered beverage product with carbonated or non-carbonated water to produce a diluted or reconstituted beverage.
One of the methods of doing business in the area of beverage preparation equipment and product sales is for the beverage equipment supplier or the product supplier to provide the equipment operator with the beverage preparation equipment at little or no cost by way of a no cost or low cost loan arrangement. In this scenario the supplier retains ownership of the equipment. The supplier sells the product used with the loaned equipment at a higher price than the price solely for the product if the operator owned the equipment. This allows the supplier to recover the cost of the loaned equipment over a period of time through the higher priced product. In other words, the business method involves loaning the equipment to the operator, with the agreement that the operator will purchase its product requirements from the supplier. The scenario typically requires that the equipment supplier maintain ownership and control of the equipment so that it can be transferred back to the equipment supplier in the event that the operator ceases to purchase product from the supplier, or goes out of business or other circumstance which requires return of the equipment to the supplier.
One of the problems for the equipment supplier is that another companies' product or concentrate could be purchased by the operator for use in the equipment supplier's equipment. Such a situation occurs and often results in a considerable loss of revenue for the supplier. Moreover, such switching of the product or concentrate by the operator can occur without the knowledge of the equipment supplier.
In the foregoing description the equipment provider may be an equipment manufacturer as well as another party such as the producer or supplier of the product concentrate. Examples of operators are restaurants, convenience stores, hotels, motels, stadiums and other entertainment facilities, health care facilities and other large institutional settings. Moreover, it should be noted that many of these types of operators may be members of a franchise arrangement which makes it difficult if not impossible in many situations to precisely monitor the type of concentrate being used in the equipment. With this in mind, the equipment supplier is left to trust or explicitly contract with the operator to avoid the operator from switching to an alternative, perhaps cheaper cost and lower quality concentrate product. Moreover, if the situation is managed by contract, the equipment supplier must be prepared to enforce the contract in the event of a switch in concentrate by the operator which could damage or terminate the relationship between the supplier and operator.
As an additional concern, the equipment supplier often wishes to maintain a particular quality associated with the beverage equipment. In this regard, a well-recognized, high-end equipment manufacturer would prefer to have some ability to control if not assure the quality of the beverages produced by its equipment. This oftentimes directly relates to the quality of the product concentrate used in the equipment. As such, if a cheaper, less expensive and lower quality product is used in the equipment, a poor resultant combination or beverage could impact negatively on the image and reputation of the equipment manufacturer.
With the foregoing in mind, the present invention seeks to improve and provide a novel system, method and apparatus for monitoring, controlling and billing beverage preparation equipment and product.